4/29/2023 0 Comments You are the light of the darkness![]() He sets himself in a way that is not good The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit That his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. But he opens the psalm with a description of it: Light that Is Darknessĭavid doesn’t explicitly mention “darkness” in Psalm 36, the spiritual counter to God’s light. For spiritual light and life, like natural light and life, are woven inextricably together. It is no accident that David paired “life” and “light” together in Psalm 36:9. Divine light literally gives us spiritual life: “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).“The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned” (Matthew 4:16). Divine light reveals what’s true about our spiritual surroundings.“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). The same is true of the divine spiritual light David refers to in Psalm 36:9, the light that God is (1 John 1:5) and the light that God gives (Revelation 21:23–25) frequently described in Scripture: So, natural light shows us the way we should go, reveals what’s true about our surroundings, and literally gives and sustains our bodily lives. Our bodies also absorb vital nutrients directly from sunlight and would not be able to survive without the heating effect that this electromagnetic radiance produces. In order to survive, we eat plants that eat light, or we eat animals that eat plants that eat light. “Spiritual light and life, like natural light and life, are woven inextricably together.”īut the sun also literally gives our bodies life. And in the dark, we don’t know the way to go. Darkness veils creatures, inanimate objects, and environments that can seriously injure or kill us. We have good reason to have a natural fear of the dark, because it conceals those dangers. ![]() We also need it to help us see and avoid or evade the myriad dangers around us. Our physical bodies have eyes and therefore we need light to show us where we are and where we need to go. In the natural realm, we depend on the sun’s light for illumination. There’s far more to God’s light than meets the spiritual “eye.”īut we know what light essentially does for us, both natural and divine. If we’re asked to define this divine light, we might be able to manage (with John Piper’s help) something like, “The light of God’s glory is the radiance of ‘the infinite beauty and greatness of God’s manifold perfections.’” But again, beyond that, most of us would be hard pressed to give an articulate answer. The Bible describes it as the very radiance of God’s glory (see Revelation 21:23). There’s far more to light than meets the eye. ![]() The deeper science has delved into the nature of light, the more complexity we’ve discovered. If asked, we might be able to manage something like, “Natural light on earth is the electromagnetic radiance of the sun.” But beyond that, most of us would start stumbling about. We think we know what light is until we’re forced to define it. Either way, when we ask what light is, natural or divine, we soon discover that it is not simple. We know David is using natural sunlight as a metaphor for divine or spiritual light, an image used numerous times in Scripture - though it is also true to say that natural light is a kind of metaphorical representation of God, since he is the “true light” (John 1:9). What is this “light”? And what is the corresponding darkness? And what light do we see in God’s light? More than Meets the Eye Do you know what David means? That’s what I asked myself. ![]() Just think about it for a moment: in your light do we see light. But that morning the profundity of it gripped me. It’s as poetically beautiful as it is insightful. I love the way David stacks wonder upon wonder: the protection of God’s wings, the abundant feast in God’s house, the refreshing river of God’s delights, the fountain of God’s life.īut that last phrase stopped me in my tracks: “in your light do we see light.” It’s not as if I hadn’t noticed it before. They feast on the abundance of your house,Īnd you give them drink from the river of your delights. The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! One recent early morning, I was reading Psalm 36 and savoring one of the sweetest doxologies in the Bible: ![]()
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